Endorsements for Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980-83

Raissa Pardini photographed by Lyndell Mansfield

"Tim Lawrence has followed his now-classic Love Saves the Day with a magnificent account of one of the most fertile and influential periods of New York City's long musical history. He manages to capture with striking accuracy the unique and stunning meshing together of styles and genres that defined this period as one of the key moments in modern popular and club culture. A must-read for anyone curious about how modern dance music got to where it is." — François Kevorkian, DJ, producer, and remixer

"Tim Lawrence connects the dots of a scene so explosively creative, so kaleidoscopically diverse, so thrillingly packed with the love of music and the love of life that even those of us who were there could not have possibly seen or heard it all! Now we can. Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980–1983 is not only a remarkable account of a remarkable time, it is a moving memorial to all those who left the party much too soon." — Ann Magnuson, writer, actress, and former Club 57 manager and NYC Downtown performance artist

"Tim Lawrence’s powerfully pulsating and enthusiastically researched book, Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980-83, vividly captures the cultural revolution I took part in that had New York City under creative siege! The book flows like a time-capsule master-mix whisking you from club to party in those few no-holds-barred fun-filled years as a multiethnic mash-up of us grooved together to the DJ’s beat while the world clamored to get on the guest list." — Fab 5 Freddy, graffiti artist and MC

"Tim Lawrence brings the authority of his deeply sourced disco history Love Saves the Day to club culture's great melting-pot moment, when hip hop, punk, and disco transformed one another, with input from salsa, jazz, and Roland 808s. If you never danced yourself dizzy at the Roxy, the Paradise Garage, or the Mudd Club, here's a chance to feel the bass and taste the sweat." — Will Hermes, author of Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever

“[A] truly outstanding tome” — James Chance, of James Chance and the Contortions

"What a wonderful piece of work! I think this may be the definitive Bible for NYC and dance music during that era." — Man Parrish, producer “Hip Hop, Be Bop ( Don’t Stop)”

"Your book taught me about my own childhood! Thank you for that. It's such a valuable addition to the canon." — Sasha Frere-Jones, pop music critic at the New Yorker, 2004-14.

"Back around 1981 or 82, I was seeing a gorgeous red head who looked very much like Lauren Bacall. Her father owned railroads and they had a summer house in Jamestown Rhode Island. I had started making a little money and always having had an affinity for unreliable British sports cars, I bought a used British Racing Green, Triumph Spitfire. I recall it being an oppressively hot July Friday--the kind of NYC day that everyone in their right mind would want to escape. So I drove the scary little roadster 3 1/2 hours to Jamestown to spend the weekend. She warned me in advance that her family were Quakers--had no TV and at the end of dinner, they would retire to the living room, where each member would take their seat, open a book and read for a few hours. I thought she was kidding. She wasn’t. I went back to the car and she kissed me goodbye. Then she went back inside to join her family and I drove back to Manhattan. // Your incredible book reminded me of that day and why I got in that death machine and drove another 3 1/2 hours to try to get back to NY before the bars closed. It wasn’t because her weirdo family scared the shit out of me. I just needed to get back--I needed a fix of the Odeon, Danceteria, after hours at the Zodiac... Everything else, no matter how beautiful, felt empty. If you were part of all that excitement, innovation, adventure, hedonism-it was the only place you wanted to be. The rest of the world was just... // You’ll have scores of academics, critics, musicologists giving your work the in-depth analysis and praise it deserves. I just want to thank you for acknowledging the importance and vitality of the era, the spirit of collective adventure and discovery, and the respectfulness of your narrative, but most of all for taking me back in a way that I couldn’t dream possible. You’re book is a wonderful gift." — John Robie, producer and musician